twopointouch

Couldn’t agree more. It’s not where you are but rather who you are and what your idea is that counts. I’ve been to SF many times but take the Bay Area out of the US and I suspect that many US startups struggle to get funding just as they do in the UK.
I would also make the point that if your Web2.0 business is good enough you shouldn’t need startup funding. As long as you have an income the idea and technology will carry your business along regardless.
Vive La UK.

Hi Ian (D),

Thanks for the mention and I’m not quite gone yet - only over here visiting at the moment but definitely trying to figure out the logistics of a move now.

You mentioned funding and early stage funding is more accessible in the States than it is in the UK but it’s only a small part of what makes the place attractive. The real attraction is that there are so many people both doing the same thing and who have alredy done the same thing who you can learn from.

To make an observation on Ian (G)’s point, it can be the case that the idea and technology will carry you along but sometimes businesses simply take more resources than it’s possible to give them in the evenings alongside a job.

If that happens before you reach liquidity and the business is viable enough that you’re confident it will reach liquidity then funding is a very defensible path to take. Whether the idea/business/app is that good is of course another question altogether

I think it’s a bit of a cop out to say the grass is greener across the pond but I agree there is more grass. While I take Pete’s point about learning from a larger volume of experienced players - how many experiences does one really need to hear before information starts conflicting? Talk to three big names and they’ll all have conflicting opinions on many aspects of growing a start up!

What most seem to agree on is that it’s not just the learning from others that helps to make a success but even more important perhaps is the discipline to navigate your own course with dedication and assurance.

Given the infinite, multifarious routes to success, I believe there are more than enough experienced and successful Internet entrepreneurs based in the UK if one looks hard enough and if it’s about funding then I agree with the argument that funding will be available in the UK for a business that is strong enough to get it.

I think the picture is a little more confused than a basic brain drain; Tom Coates has been working for Silicon Valley company for some time, Ben Metcalfe might be in the US but he’s currently working for France Telecom.

But let’s be honest, anybody who’s spent any time in SF or the Valley realises that it’s got a great culture for this kind of thing.

Thing is, infrastructure never trumps ideas. If you’ve got a great concept, you get up and you do it. You should be successful wherever you are.

Take your Y-Combinator example: Reddit’s founders Alexis and Steve were in Virginia, not the Bay. They worked hard, did well.

I think one very important issue is that people in the UK prefer to be “lifestyle entrepreneurs”, to go out on their own because of the fringe benefits rather than pure determination to succeed. So it’s not that they’re by definition less supported, it’s that they aren’t prepared to go as far.

“…people in the UK prefer to be lifestyle entrepreneurs…”

That sounds like a rather large generalisation bobbie.

Of course it is, but we’re talking in generalisations here.

I talk to young companies, startups and tech entrepreneurs both sides of the Atlantic every day and there’s a larger incidence of lifestyle entrepreneurship here than in the US.

That doesn’t mean it’s wrong: in fact, if I were starting out on my own it would probably be for exactly those sorts of reasons (more control, family commitments, better quality of life etc).

But I can say with absolute certainty that it’s one reason that some of the people mentioned above have decided that the Bay is better for them than Britain.

No I realise that Ian, I just wanted to point out that even if investors (even Y Combinator, which is more about hothousing that investing per se) are in the Bay Area for historical reasons, not all their investments are (though having said that, Reddit are now based in SF since selling to Conde Nast).

When I was in France, all I could hear was ‘Geez, if only we could move to the UK, it’s so much better for business there’.

Now I’m in the UK and all I can hear is ‘Geez, if only we could move to the US, it’s so much better there’.

The funny thing is I lived in the US. All I could hear was ‘Geez why did you leave France? It’s so much better there’.

Morality of the story: The grass is always greener … you know the rest.

LOL I can’t edit my comments - sorry about the typos